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1. Research on
the brain and learning:
Plasticity and variability and their impact on talent identification
Tracey Tokuhama-Espinosa, Ph.D.
tracey.tokuhama@gmail.com
December 2015

2. Today:
 Vocabulary
 “Ten Things Everyone Should
Know About Their Own Brains”
 Favorable conditions for plasticity
 Protective Factors
 Risk Factors
 Implications for Talent
Identification and Cultivation

3. How does the brain learn?
 Neuroplasticity: The brain’s ability to excel, to learn, to
heal and to rehabilitate itself.
 …plasticity occurs as a result of the formation of new
synapses and connections between different areas tat
create pathways or systems, and which occur throughout the
lifespan (Freitas et al., 2011).

4. http://www-psych.stanford.edu/~lera/psych115s/notes/lecture15/images/infant-v1.JPG
http://www.humanconnectomeproject.org/

5. What is the relationship between these
words? (Use these four words in one
sentence.)
Expertise
Plasticity
Learning
Talent development

6. For Talent Development ➤
Expertise ➤ Learning ➤ Plasticity

7. Conditions Needed for Plasticity to
Occur

8. What does the brain need to maximize
plasticity?
 “Kindergarten”: Garden of children (Froebel, 1782-1852)

9. “Basic” requirements for growth
1. Good soil
2. Water
3. Sunlight
4. Air
5. …

10. “Basic” requirements for growth for
children?
1. Good “soil”
(environment
with nutrients)
2. Water, Air,
Sunlight

11. “Basic” requirements for growth for
children?
1. Good “soil”
(environment
with nutrients)
2. (Water, Air,
Sunlight)
3. Hygiene

12. “Basic” requirements for growth for
children?
1. Good “soil”
(environment with
nutrients)
2. (Water, Air,
Sunlight)
3. Hygiene
4. Habits of mind
(habituated
mindsets)

13. However, not all “seeds” react the same to
the same basic conditions. Why not?
Differences in quality
(different levels of
“potential” due to genetic
makeup)

14. Nature vs. Nurture
Differences in quality
(different levels of “potential”
due to genetic makeup)
Differences in basic genetics (thrive
under different combinations of the
conditions)

15. Nature vs. Nature
Differences in quality
(different levels of “potential”
due to genetic makeup)
Differences in basic genetics (thrive
under different combinations of the
conditions)
Different potential to react to their
environment (people are born with
different genes and different
potentials that react/adapt
differently to their environments)

16. And…Even within one seed type (talent
type) there are multiple sub-types
Different sports/musical/scientific minds thrive under different conditions

17. From potential to talent development
 Plasticity

18. What everyone needs to know about
their own brains and plasticity: 10
Big Ideas

19. 1. The brain adapts to what it does most
 Thanks to plasticity, the brain
adapts to what it does most
(Butz, Wörgötter & van Ooyen,
2009).
 Plasticity is not always
positive or healthy (e.g.,
racism, sexism, ageism,
prejudices against social
economic status, height,
nationality, religion, linguistic
preference, dress, etc.)
 Early, positive habits of mind
create the best conditions for
talent cultivation.

20. 2. Physiological changes occur before
behavioral changes
3.
2.
1.

21. 3. Sensitive periods, not critical
 There are no such things as “critical periods” for
any academic subject. (There might be for first
language and gross motor skills in the early years,
but not for anything learned in school.)
 The order in which information is learned is of more
importance than the age at which it is learned.
 Neuroconstructivism

22. 4. There is more plasticity in the early
years

23. 5. Toxic stress and poor nutrition can
cause permanent damage to brain
architecture in the early years
Center for the Developing Child, Harvard University

24. 6. Good learning depends on good
sleep hygiene
 “Sleep-dependent neural
plasticity”
 Memory consolidation
depends on dreaming (REM
stage sleep)
 Walker, M. P., & Stickgold, R. (2014). Sleep, memory and
plasticity. Neuroscience and Psychoanalysis, 1, 93.
 Tononi, G., & Cirelli, C. (2014). Sleep and the price of
plasticity: from synaptic and cellular homeostasis to
memory consolidation and integration. Neuron,81(1), 12-
34.

25. 7. The brain is more malleable (flexible)
than once believed
 “…children are not always stuck with the
mental abilities they are born with;
 “…the damaged brain can often reorganize
itself so that when one part fails, another can often
substitute;
 “…if brain cells die, they can at times be
replaced;
 “…many “circuits” and even basic reflexes are
not hardwired.
 …thinking, learning, and acting can turn our
genes on or off, thus shaping our brain anatomy
and our behavior…” (Doidge, 2008, p. xv)
Norman Doidge, 2008, 2015

26. 8. Neuroplasticity can come from both
physical stimuli as well as psychology
therapy and change

27. Physical rehabilitation
 Physical activity changes the
brain.
 It has been recognized that
neural repair involves
plasticity, sprouting and
regeneration. A physiologic
role for Nogo-A and NgR1 has
been documented in the
restriction of experience-
dependent plasticity with
maturity, and the stability of
synaptic, dendritic and axonal
anatomy.
 Schwab, M. E., & Strittmatter, S. M. (2014). Nogo limits
neural plasticity and recovery from injury. Current Opinion
in Neurobiology, 27, 53-60.

28. Psychological therapy
 Psychological therapy
treatments change the
brain.
 Therapy-dependent and
pharmaceutical-dependent
plasticity changes in the brain
 Morris, S. E., Rumsey, J. M., & Cuthbert, B. N. (2014).
Rethinking mental disorders: the role of learning and brain
plasticity. Restor. Neurol. Neurosci, 32, 5-23.
 Dukart, J., Regen, F., Kherif, F., Colla, M., Bajbouj, M.,
Heuser, I., ... & Draganski, B. (2014). Electroconvulsive
therapy-induced brain plasticity determines therapeutic
outcome in mood disorders. Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences, 111(3), 1156-1161.

29. 9. Plasticity can occur through gaming
and common experiences
 Computer games and
educational computer
programs change the
brain.
 Structural changes in grey
matter due to rehearsal
 Kühn, S., Gleich, T., Lorenz, R. C., Lindenberger,
U., & Gallinat, J. (2014). Playing Super Mario
induces structural brain plasticity: gray matter
changes resulting from training with a commercial
video game. Molecular psychiatry,19(2), 265-271.

30. 10. “Use it or lose it”
 Keeping the brain busy into old
age staves off decline.
 “adult brain plasticity... the ever-
increasing available knowledge on
the effects elicited by enriched living
conditions on physiological and
pathological aging brain processes”
(Sale, Berardi & Maffei, 2014,
p.189).
 Sale, A., Berardi, N., & Maffei, L. (2014). Environment and brain
plasticity: towards an endogenous pharmacotherapy. Physiological
reviews, 94(1), 189-234.

31. What helps plasticity (protective
factors) and what hurts it (risk
factors?

32. Influences on talent
https://ncaddsac.org/2014/03/ncadd-sacramento-strengthens-families/
Genes
Brain potential
Civil society
and
government
Global
community/Cu
lture
What are protective
factors and what are the
risk factors associated
with each level?

33. http://www.nhstayside.scot.nhs.uk/OurServicesA-Z/PublicHealth/PROD_211171/index.htm
Genetic
Genetic
disease
Superior
genetic
make-up

34. Age can also be a protective or a
risk factor
 Plasticity exists across
the lifespan
 However, the effort to
learn is greater with age.
http://image.slidesharecdn.com/nipponfoundationnagoyatalk-revised-140917202958-phpapp02/95/timing-matters-how-to-think-about-the-effects-of-early-
experience-on-brain-and-behavioral-development-by-dr-nathan-a-fox-university-of-maryland-4-638.jpg?cb=1410986727

35. Emotions can be a protective or a
risk factor
 Stress impedes plasticity
(learning)
 Stress hormones block
natural plasticity and
memory building (Krugers,
Hoogenraad, & Groc, 2010).
 Bannerman, D. M., Sprengel, R., Sanderson, D.
J., McHugh, S. B., Rawlins, J. N. P., Monyer, H.,
& Seeburg, P. H. (2014). Hippocampal synaptic
plasticity, spatial memory and anxiety. Nature
Reviews Neuroscience, 15(3), 181-192.
 Bock, J., Wainstock, T., Braun, K., & Segal, M.
(2015). Stress in utero: Prenatal programming of
brain plasticity and cognition. Biological
Psychiatry.

36. Culture and Environment can be a protective
or risk factors for certain talents
 Cultural neuroscience: “an interdisciplinary field that
investigates the relationship between culture (e.g., value and
belief systems and practices shared by groups) and human
brain functions” (Han et al., 2013, p. 335)—
 A child’s environment can actually change gene
potentiation and physically reshape her brain.
 There are significant cultural variances in reactions to
other people’s emotional states (De Greck et al., 2012).

37. Culture and Habituated Practice
 …sustained exposure to a set of cultural
experiences and behavioral practices will
affect neural structure and function” (Park &
Huang, 2010, p. 391).
 The community a child grows up in shapes
not only her values concerning education but
also her threshold for stress, her openness
to novelty and new learning, her reactions to
emotional stimuli in the classroom, and her
brain’s preparedness for different types of
learning.

38. How does this information about
neuroplasticity help us understand
talent?

39. Reflection: 3-2-1
3 things you didn’t know before this
conference
2 things that are so interesting you will
continue to research them
1 thing you will change about your practice

40. In summary
 The brain and learning
 Vocabulary
 What everyone should know about their own brains
 Favorable conditions for plasticity
 Protective and Risk Factors
 Implications for Talent Identification and Cultivation
‫!تشکر‬

41. Contact information:
Tracey Tokuhama-Espinosa, Ph.D.
www. traceytokuhama.com
tracey.tokuhama@gmail.com
-John Cotton